Toxins are harmful substances that can have a negative impact on your health. This includes substances like pollutants, heavy metals, synthetic chemicals and more. Our bodies are built with a natural detox system to deal with these toxins. We eliminate them through the skin, urine, digestive system, circulatory system, respiratory and lymphatic systems.

The effects of toxicity

Unfortunately, with today’s stressful life and the excess intake of harmful toxins, these nasty substances can start to accumulate in your body. They start to cause illness that further increases the stress and toxic burden on your body. Your liver is the first line of defence when it comes to dealing with waste products and impurities, but when you add alcohol to the mix of ingested toxins, you can impair its function and it cannot deal with the toxic substances properly.

When your body is not functioning at its best, you will start to feel tired all the time, emotional and have difficulty sleeping. Physical symptoms may include cravings, struggling to lose weight, feeling bloated, constipation, moodiness, acne breakouts and fluid retention.

So, what can you do to help your body clear this toxic burden? You can help it by doing a nutritional detox, which in turn will boost and rejuvenate your body’s natural detoxification systems.

Detox yourself happy

Retreats are purposeful getaways to help put back the physical, mental and spiritual balance in your life. Detoxing is a big part of a retreat because not only will you focus on a physical and nutritional detox, but also on a mental and spiritual one. Just as you ingest physical toxins, so you can ‘ingest’ mental toxins too, like spending too much time on social media, hanging out with people who are negative and harm you emotionally. Toxic situations in personal relationships and at work can wear you out physically and emotionally. Couple this with feeling dull and moody as a result of your toxic burden, and it can reap havoc on your life.

Detox is termed by the Oxford dictionary as a process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances; detoxification. One of the benefits of going on a retreat is having the support and professional help to guide you through these processes.

Let’s look at the two types of detoxing you might experience on a retreat.

Nutritional detox

The aim of a nutritional detox is to help your body get rid of its toxic burden. You can do this by eating clean. This means cutting out all processed foods, alcohol and harmful sugars and replacing them with nutritious organic produce. Your clean eating meal plan may even exclude things that can cause allergies or irritate the gut like gluten or lactose. Red meats can also be excluded as they may contain GMOs (genetically modified organisms) which is just another type of toxin your body needs to deal with.

Detoxing has become a bit of a fad diet these days, and one should be careful not to just follow any detox plan. Some detox diets will recommend taking medications like laxatives or diuretics, that can actually do more harm than good.

Retreats offer nutritional, usually vegetarian, meals that will help you to detox naturally and benefit your mental state. They will be packed with healthy foods like fruits and vegetables that are rich in antioxidants, pre- and probiotics, and phytonutrients to help fight and eliminate toxins. Make sure to drink enough clean water during your detox and keep your fibre intake up.

Benefits of a nutritional detox:

· Restores physical energy

· Restores emotional energy

· Increases mental clarity and stamina

· Aids weight loss

· Improves appearance of skin

· Boosts immune system

· Helps to form healthy eating habits

· Aids the digestive system and gets rid of bloating and constipation

Digital detox

In this modern day and age, there is an increasing need to detox from the information saturated world of the internet, social media and technology. The Oxford dictionary defines a digital detox as a period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.

Constant connectivity can be seen as an emotional stressor, and the idea of a digital detox during a retreat is to disconnect from all these inputs on your life, whether they are relevant or not. When you disconnect you will have the opportunity to focus on yourself and the physical world around you. You may be forced to deal with negative emotions or things that block your path to healing where you previously hid behind social media and a false self-image. Once you start working through these things and declutter your mind using aids like yoga and meditation, you will start to realise what a big impact the digital world has on you and your outlook on life. A retreat will help you use the digital world more responsibly and balanced with real-life physical conversations, relationships and self-love.

Detoxing can be highly beneficial for your overall health. A retreat is one of the best ways to try it because you will be in the company of like-minded people and professional teachers who can guide you through the process. After detoxing, you will feel refreshed and ready to take back your life again.